North Dakota abortion law blocked

By Brendan O'Brien

(Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked North Dakota's new abortion law, which bans procedures to end pregnancy once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as six weeks.

The law, the most restrictive in the country, was to go into effect August 1. U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland granted a preliminary injunction blocking it in response to a lawsuit filed by Red River Women's Clinic, the only abortion clinic in the state.

The clinic said banning abortions that early, before many women even knew they were pregnant, would bar nearly 90 percent of the abortions it performs.

The clinic argued that the law violates the U.S. Constitution and places the health of women in danger.

"The court finds the plaintiffs have established that they and their patients will be subjected to the threat of irreparable injury in the absence of a preliminary injunction," the judge wrote in his ruling.

If the clinic closes or is forced to stop performing abortions, the closest alternatives are about 250 miles away in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Governor Jack Dalrymple, a Republican in a state with a Republican-controlled legislature, said in March that it was not clear if the law would be constitutional but that money should be provided by the state to defend it.

The law, approved in March, is among a host of restrictions on abortion passed by Republican-led state legislatures this year. A dozen states have approved bans on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, but none have approved restrictions as strong as the ones enacted by North Dakota and Arkansas.

In March, Arkansas banned most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. A federal judge blocked the law in May, at least temporarily.

(Reporting By Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Dina Kyriakidou and John Wallace)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/federal-judge-temporarily-blocks-north-dakotas-abortion-law-172002031.html

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Fans get their geek on at Comic-Con's Masquerade

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? Imagine Marvel's comic book heroes recast as Bollywood characters, a whiny Skeletor teaming up with Loki in attempt to get back at those jerks He-Man and Thor, and "Star Wars" reimagined as a musical complete with a chorus line of Jawa showgirls.

Cosplay enthusiasts gathered Saturday night at Comic-Con to get their geek on, participating in the annual Masquerade meant to celebrate creativity, imagination and costume makings skills of all levels.

Fans, scores in their own multi-colored multiverse of costumes, began lining up hours early for one of the pop-culture celebration's most-anticipated events. They were rewarded with a little bit of everything from the comic book, film, anime and video game worlds.

Some of the 38 contest entries aimed for authenticity, faithfully recreating Batman and Wonder Woman, others for camp. Fans responded to both, laughing and cheering along with a group that morphed the Yugioh card game into a contest between members of the DC and Marvel comic book catalogs, but also applauding imaginative creations with moving parts like "Bat Wolf" and "Knights of Saggitarius" and "Scourge."

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Online:

http://comic-con.org

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Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fans-geek-comic-cons-masquerade-065152849.html

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Big 12 commissioner suggests new 'federation' within NCAA

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby speaks to the media Monday at the Omni Dallas Hotel. Bowlsby called for a reconfiguration of NCAA governance to better group schools of like resources.(Photo: Kevin Jairaj, USA TODAY Sports)

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Secession from the NCAA isn't on the way ? but a so-called "super division" might be.

Suggesting a special convention might need to be called to achieve "transformational change" in the NCAA, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby suggested Monday it's time to consider a new "federation" of schools with like resources ? and perhaps separation by sport.

RELATED: ACC's Swofford envisions significant NCAA changes

"It's probably unrealistic to think that we can manage football and field hockey by the same set of rules," Bowlsby said. "I think some kind of reconfiguration of how we govern is in order."

His remarks, made Monday morning during an annual state of the Big 12 address, followed strong comments last week from SEC commissioner Mike Slive, who said of the NCAA: "Moving forward, there are important questions that must be answered." Also Monday, ACC commissioner John Swofford told USA TODAY Sports significant structural and governance changes could come in January. Swofford suggested a separate division for the five power conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC).

Bowlsby went further than Slive did last week. But Bowlsby said commissioners of the five power conferences have "unanimity" on the subject, and said, "I don't think anything I said was inconsistent with what (Slive) said."

"When I think about John Swofford and (Pac-12 commissioner) Larry Scott and beyond that as well, I think we all have a sense that transformative change is going to have to happen," Bowlsby added. "This is not a time when trimming around the edges is going to make very much difference."

RELATED: SEC's Slive subtlely targets NCAA

The gap in resources within college athletics has never been greater, and it's growing. An analysis by USA TODAY shows the average SEC public school's operational expenses in 2011-12 were $88.5 million, according to the most recently available information reported by the schools to the NCAA. The average Mountain West school spent $41.3 million. The divide is expected to grow dramatically with the advent of the College Football Playoff.

"Northern Iowa and Texas aren't much alike," said Bowlsby, formerly the athletic director at Northern Iowa, Iowa and Stanford before moving to the Big 12 a year ago.

Bowlsby said he did not see a complete separation from the NCAA as a viable option, but said the threat of secession must be retained as leverage "as a last resort."

"I really think that leadership and the rank and file believe that there's a solution within the NCAA, and it's been along those lines that we've had the conversations," he said. "Could that change to something that's a little more harsh down the road? Possibly could, sure."

The problem, as Bowlsby and his peers see it, is two-pronged. Initiatives proposed by larger schools ? the easiest example, he noted, is the idea of a stipend, or full cost-of-attendance scholarships ? have no chance of passing because schools with fewer resources vote them down.

PREVIOUSLY: Is next realignment an NCAA split?

"It's virtually impossible right now to configure legislative proposals that have any chance of getting through the system intact that would accomplish anything in the way of meaningful change," Bowlsby said. "I think all of us are feeling that."

At the same time, the NCAA's governance structure, with its emphasis on presidential control, is seen as out of touch. The people who work daily in college athletics "feel like they're on the outside looking in," Bowlsby said. Bowlsby said he wasn't directing criticism specifically at NCAA president Mark Emmert, but said "we need to reconfigure the leadership of the organization," with athletic directors and commissioners as voting members of the NCAA's board of directors, which is currently populated by presidents.

"We need to reengage the practitioners," Bowlsby said. "The athletic directors, commissioners, people that work in athletics every day. I think it's unrealistic to think that people that spend hours a month on athletics can come up with the right agenda and have the time to move it through the system."

George Schroeder, a national college football reporter for USA TODAY Sports, is on Twitter @GeorgeSchroeder.

PHOTOS: COUNTING DOWN TO NO. 1

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Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomCollegeSports-TopStories/~3/0N14VxwSK38/

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Seen and heard at Comic-Con

Associated Press journalists open their notebooks at this year's Comic-Con in San Diego:

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FOR SALE! CHEAP AND ON SPECIAL

A big part of Comic-Con is searching for a specific comic book or a special edition graphic novel, or a lithograph bearing a scene from a favorite film.

Those and so much more are up for sale at Comic-Con International, and as the four-day event winds down Sunday, many in the exhibition hall are cutting prices in a bid to sell off their wares.

Comics dealers posted signs offering 10, 20 and even 50 percent off several titles. Purveyors of toys offered two-for-one specials. Down one aisle, a woman hawking manga repeated "20 percent of all the anime!" to entice browsers.

It's a buyer's market, and Nick Louise of San Jose was going to check it out.

"Some of it's free. They don't want to pay to take it back," he said of the items that retailers want to unload. "We'll happily take it home."

? Matt Moore (http://www.twitter.com/mattmooreap )

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STYLE AND TECHNIQUE MAKE AND BREAK PERCEPTIONS

Artist J.H. Williams III says the artists who illustrate comic books can help change the way a reader perceives the story and have a "huge impact on how the story feels" as pages are turned, images examined and words read.

Williams, whose artwork on DC Entertainment's Batwoman is lush, thematic and flowing, is in the midst of illustrating Vertigo Comics' upcoming The Sandman Overture, working with writer Neil Gaiman to tell a prequel of sorts to the groundbreaking comic.

He said that seeing how visual styles affect reader impressions is what led him to "dabbling in so many different art styles within one story from scene to scene or sometimes from panel to panel. I'll shift the style based on what's happening in the story. It subliminally makes the reader view it in a different way."

Williams said that's only possible in the medium of comic art and, he said, "has a great impact on a story because of it."

? Matt Moore (http://www.twitter.com/mattmooreap )

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MIND THE LINE

The prospect of lines ? long lines ? at Comic-Con International is built-in to the entire experience.

Volunteers are on hand to help shepherd hundreds and often thousands of people headed to see panels featuring television shows, comic book artists and writers and autograph-seekers, too. There's always one at the start, bearing a sign, while still others help keep track of the twists and turns, too, and, finally, the one at the end with a simple sign atop a pole: "End of the line."

? Matt Moore (http://www.twitter.com/mattmooreap )

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/seen-heard-comic-con-175617080.html

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NBA News: Cavs? Dion Waiters to play only at shooting guard

Over the last few days, Cleveland Cavaliers fans have seen a more demonstrative head coach Mike Brown out with the team over at the NBA Las Vegas Summer League. Yesterday, Brown shed some light on how he views second-year guard Dion Waiters.

?I?m viewing him strictly as a 2-guard,? Brown said to the Akron Beacon Journal?s Jason Lloyd.

In Lloyd?s article, he shares Brown?s point of view that he wants Waiters to focus on just being a guard. That includes ?championship level basketball? on both ends of the court. Per Lloyd, the coach has been reviewing tape individually and emphasizing hustle plays with Waiters and fellow second-year player Tyler Zeller, who both are playing for the Vegas team.

According to Fear The Sword?s Conrad Kazcamarek, Brown was visibly pleased with how Waiters performed defensively in Thursday?s playoff victory over the San Antonio Spurs. In that game, Waiters scored 27 points with six rebounds, but Lloyd remarked how he seemed more aware and talked more defensively.

In college at Syracuse, Waiters came off the bench and played almost exclusively with the ball in his hands offensively. In his rookie season, then-head coach Byron Scott tried multiple times to have Waiters just play as a shooting guard, but he eventually relented to letting him control the ball in spurts, especially when All-Star Kyrie Irving was out of action.

With the free agent signing of combo guard Jarrett Jack, the Cavaliers have a much more proven option at the point guard position behind Irving this season. Jack is expected to play both guard positions, freeing up Waiters to spend more time as a shooting guard only. Last year, the only other potential point guards on roster were Shaun Livingston, Daniel Gibson, Jeremy Pargo, Donald Sloan and recently-released Chris Quinn.

[Related: The Boots: Talkin? Cavs long-term upside and the 2014 East Playoffs]

Source: http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/2013/07/nba-news-cavs-dion-waiters-shooting-guard/

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Superman is coming back and this time with Batman

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? Superman is coming back and he'll have a caped co-star.

"Man of Steel" director Zack Snyder announced Saturday at San Diego's Comic-Con that he was making another Superman film and that it will include Batman ? the first time the two superheroes will be united on the big screen.

He declined to reveal many details, saying the script is just being written. He then invited an actor onstage to read a passage to hint at the story line.

"I am the man who beat you," read Harry Lennox, before an image of the Superman logo, backed by the Batman symbol, flashed on the screen.

Warner Bros. then confirmed the first-ever pairing in a statement.

Snyder reimagined Superman in his June blockbuster "Man of Steel," starring Henry Cavill and Amy Adams, which has grossed more than $630 million worldwide.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/superman-coming-back-time-batman-212254952.html

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NHL stars to return to Olympics in Sochi in 2014

NEW YORK (AP) ? After weeks of tough negotiations, the NHL and its players reached a deal with the International Ice Hockey Federation on Friday to put the season on hold again so the game's biggest stars can compete next year in the Sochi Olympics.

Putting a stop to another season one year after the damaging lockout created a shortened, 48-game campaign was hardly an optimal plan for the NHL. But an agreement was made to allow the top players to take part in the Olympics for the fifth straight time.

"Our outstanding athletes take tremendous pride in representing their homelands on the global stage," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in a joint announcement with the players' association. "The decision to participate in the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi was in many ways a difficult one, but one that we know will be well received by our players and, most importantly, by the vast majority of our fans and sports fans everywhere."

NHL players first went to the Olympics for the 1998 Nagano Games. Now they will be available to the 12 national teams that will comprise the hockey tournament from Feb. 12-23. More than 120 NHL players are expected to compete in Sochi while the league takes a break for 2? weeks from Feb. 9-26.

"You find out pretty quickly that an Olympic-year schedule is a little more condensed and a little more intense than a typical year," Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said during a conference call. "You have to take advantage of your days off because it is condensed.

"Playing that condensed schedule then going right into basically a pretty intense playoff atmosphere, every game is like a Game 7. Then coming back from that, you basically go from being at that level of intensity to regular-season games."

Crosby is a veteran of this type of schedule, having served as an alternate captain at the 2010 Vancouver Games when Canada captured the gold medal. Crosby scored the "Golden Goal" in overtime against the United States to win the championship.

"It's gone by really fast," he said. "With injuries and stuff like that, too, it wasn't like there were three full hockey seasons to kind of look back on.

"It's exciting. You start to kind of think about it with it being announced that we're going."

Friday's announcement paved the way for the NHL to reveal the schedule for the upcoming regular season. That had been held up until a resolution was made on Olympic participation. The league said Friday the 2013-14 regular season will begin Oct. 1.

Long gone are the days in which college and amateur players made up Olympic hockey teams like the 1980 United States "Miracle on Ice" squad that captured gold in Lake Placid, N.Y.

But with increased logistic issues such as insurance, travel and disruption of the regular season, there is no guarantee NHL players will be back at the Olympics in 2018 and beyond.

"The players are very pleased that an agreement has been reached that will allow the world's best hockey players to compete at the Winter Games in February," said Don Fehr, the players' association executive director. "Having the opportunity to wear their nation's sweater in Sochi is something the players look forward to."

Bettman, Fehr and IIHF President Rene Fasel met for more than five hours July 1 ? the day after the NHL draft ? at league headquarters in New York and made progress toward a deal that took nearly three more weeks to hammer out.

"I am very happy with the result of the constructive discussions which will ensure that once again we will see the world's top ice hockey players competing at the Olympic Games," IOC President Jacques Rogge said in a statement. "I would like to thank all parties involved for making this happen ahead of Sochi 2014."

The biggest challenge the NHL faces every time the Olympics come is the need to stop the hockey season for several weeks so its players can go. That became a bigger factor this time because of last season's lockout that delayed the start of the campaign until late January.

"Although there were many details to discuss with our partners NHL and NHLPA, there was never any doubt in my mind that we would not continue the tradition from Nagano, Salt Lake City, Turin and Vancouver," Fasel said in a separate statement. "The modern Olympic era is about sportive competition on the highest possible level. This is what fans around the world expect from a 100-meter race or downhill skiing and this is also what they are entitled to expect from our sport.

"It is the obligation of the IIHF toward our fans that the biggest sports show on Earth has the best players, and toward our member associations that they are able to select the best players that their educational systems have developed. I would like to thank NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA Executive Director Don Fehr for their cooperation."

As part of the deal, seven NHL referees and six NHL linesmen will join the IIHF on-ice officials' crews that will work the men's tournament. It will be played according to the IIHF rulebook on the bigger international-sized rinks.

Crosby, who was left off Canada's Olympic team during his rookie NHL season in 2006, never really doubted that NHL players would be back for the Sochi Games.

"I think everyone thought it was just a matter of time, working out logistics," he said. "With it being a little further in Russia, I'm sure there was a little bit more work to do. I'm glad that we're going, and obviously excited to kind of start the process."

Soon enough he will shooting for a golden repeat.

"When you play for Canada, that's the expectation," Crosby said. "You realize pretty quickly that people come together that time of year especially. When it's hockey even more so.

"You want to go there and find a way to win gold."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nhl-stars-return-olympics-sochi-2014-162655216.html

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